OASIS eXtensible Access Control Markup Language (XACML) TC

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Minutes for 18 September 2025 XACML TC Meeting

  • 1.  Minutes for 18 September 2025 XACML TC Meeting

    Posted 10-16-2025 22:53
    Time: 4:30 PM EST
    Zoom Link: http://tinyurl.com/48n4yrzs
    Meeting ID: 850 9753 8468

    Minutes for 18 September 2025 TC Meeting

    I. Roll Call & Minutes
    Voting members
    Bill Parducci (Chair)
    Steven Legg
    Cyril Dangerville
    Voting Members: 3 of 3 (100% - quorum)

    Approve Minutes 18 Septembet TC meeting
    https://groups.oasis-open.org/discussion/minutes-18-september-2025-tc-meeting
    Approved unanimously

    II. Administrivia
    Bill noted that Hal has retired, thanks everyone for their contributions and wishes us
    a successful conclusion with XACML 4.0.

    Schedule changes with the end of Daylight Savings
    Next meeting will be on November 13, 2025 at 2:20PM EST

    III. Issues
    Steven noted that he's added the normative parts of the Entities Profile to the core
    specification but haven't updated the XSD file

    There was a conversation on the adoption of XML schema 1.1. It was agreed that this will
    become the normative standard in ACAL v1.0, with XML schema 1.0 to be provided with
    "context prose" to ensure that either approach will yield the same results. XML schema
    v1.0 will be marked for Deprecation in future versions.

    There was a brief discussion on how to coordinate work on gitHub to prevent overlap.

    Cyril mentioned a discussion he had that suggestion Ontology Web Language (OWL) might
    ultimately be better than UML for describing the semantic elements of ACAL.
    Implementation is TBD and either direction will ultimately be represented visually in a
    graphic as part of the specification.

    New Issues in gitHub
    * Clashing variable identifiers
    * Intuitive argument order
    * XML patterns for URI - alias table, with deprecation noted MUST use new identifiers,
    OpTIONALLY support old identifiers

    TODO: Bill to talk to Oasis about ACAL urn identifiers.


    Issue #61 - Replace XSD string type with more restrictive type for VariableId and
    ParameterName
    UTF-8 will be base character set. Cyril is working on the subset (regex).

    Issue #14 - Simplify combiner parameters
    Backward compatibility only. Not aware of any current implementations
    General agreement is to REMOVE this functionality as it doesn't seem applicable to
    modern requirements

    Issue 28 - Indeterminate
    Steven raised this as an issue for indexing well-formed input. Cyril suggested tabling
    this for a future version. Steven suggested creating new functions that could help
    address this.

    Issue 55 - Reduce the XML attribute names of PolicyId, RuleId, VariableId, etc. to just
    Id.
    Steven raised the idea of consistency across various contexts.
    Cyril would like to make the naming as efficient as possible.
    General agreement is to prioritize shorter ids where it makes sense in the context of
    usage.

    Issue 25 - Fix the identification of LDAP attributes.
    General agreement that this can be closed.

    Issue 24 - Make the n-of function determinate.
    This will be addressed with a new ACAL function

    Issue 23 - Add shortcut functions for testing bag sizes.
    This will be addressed with a new ACAL function

    Issue 22 - Add aggregate functions.
    Steve suggest an options second argument. If only one given, returns Indeterminate in the case of Empty bag.

    Issue 13 - Add a ternary conditional operator function
    General agreement to proceed with this.

    Issue 12 - Add global variable definitions
    Steven suggested that the introduction section as a good place to introduce the
    concept.
    Cyril raised the issue of how to refer to global definitions
    Steven proposed that a structure contained definitions of entities, shortids, policies
    General consensus that the TC should come up with an appropriate name for this
    "package".
    "Bundle" is being used as placeholder.

    meeting adjourned.